Fox's in the Box
by Mr Halfwright
Summary: Tails wakes up in Stormtop village and decides to spend as much time as he can with Li Moon while he still can, but what type of gift can he get his new love in such a small village? One shot. Takes place in SU issue 16.


Fox's in the Box.

Takes place near the end of Sonic Universe issue 16, it'll make sense as it goes along.

I made up alota stuff about Li Moon since hardly anything is known about her.

I was listening to various Ephixia songs while writing this, particularly 'Song of Storms', 'Impendment' and 'In Twilight Bloom.'

Don't own any characters, etc etc.

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><p>Miles 'Tails' Prower awoke with a start in the cockpit of his most prized procession, the Tornado. Considering the fact he had just spent the whole night crumpled up in a bi-plane cockpit he had slept pretty well. He briefly wondered how he came about this situation, he must have simply dosed off in the cockpit when he arrived here, as he faintly remembered being tired on the flight over here from the Shinobi clan.<p>

Climbing out of the cockpit he realised his left tail had gone numb from sleeping on it improperly, _"Or is it my right tail?"_ Tails wondered. Discovering that it was indeed his left tail, he turned himself around so he could rub the blood flow back into the offending tail, he hated when he couldn't fly by himself.

Yawning violently, Tails started to head towards the main complex of Stormtop village where his bed lay un-slept in, only to find something truly delicious in his mouth when he closed his mouth from the yawn, opening his eyes he saw Li Moon was giggling in front of him with half a pink frosted cupcake in her hand. She was wearing a pretty purple and white komodo like outfit with armbands and boots that matched the colour of her shining black hair, Tails couldn't help but blush at the sight of the laughing red-furred fox before him.

Tails took a few seconds to savour the taste of what was presumably the pink frosted cupcake before swallowing the delicious treat and complementing her in the typical male fashion for this situation.

"Did you make that Li Moon?" he asked politely, to which Li Moon nodded her head in approval and started making plane noises and moving the cupcake around, knowing full well what was coming Tails glanced around the grand green fields to make sure no-one was watching (particularly Sonic and Sally), before opening his mouth and allowing her to feed him like a baby, no clue as to why he was allowing this kind of treatment.

"I made these especially for you Tails, I hope you like them!" Li Moon exclaimed, brining an expertly weaved basket into view from her other hand and giving it to him. Upon inspection, the basket's contents contained a collection of around 30 cupcakes, 10 sweet-rolls, a dozen cookies, a medium sized chocolate cake and a big glass bottle of lemonade; all of which looked home made.

"Li Moon, this must have taken you hours to make!" Tails exclaimed, blown away at the sheer scale of the unexpected gift.

"Shhhh... Not so loud Tails!" Li Moon said desperately "People are trying to sleep!"

Giggling slightly, a quick sorry was emanated from Tails as he rubbed the back off his neck nervously. It couldn't be any later than 6:00 as sleeping outside is guaranteed to wake you up pretty early. The sky was clear from any visible clouds while the east horizon was a clear blue. The contrasting effect from the black sky above them was overwhelmingly pretty, promising to be an almost perfect day to the two foxes standing alone in the lush green field.

"Beautiful isn't it?" Li Moon asked as she noticed his gaze, standing beside him and staring off into the sunrise, she wanted nothing more right now then to hold his hand.

"It's got to be one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen... you're very lucky to live here Li Moon never forget that... where I live, you can't look in any one direction without seeing Eggman's pointless destruction of the landscape... I never imagined I'll ever find a spot like this... where you can look around for miles and see nothing but the luscious green landscape and the untouched mountain ranges."

Li Moon looked at the fox beside her and could see he meant every word he just said, the sun's rays started to intensify on the kitsune's eyes and face and she looked to the landscape below, seeing it for what seemed like the very first time. It was indeed one of the most beautiful things she had ever seen and she couldn't believe she had never noticed it before.

"Thank you for the basket Li Moon... if I had known what you were up to I would have got you something as well." Tails said, eyes remaining on the landscape before him.

"It was nothing Tails..."

"I hope you didn't spend all night on it." Tails said, turning to face her.

"No, I worked on it for you yesterday while you were gone." Li Moon said truthfully, blushing red, she was glad to see the relived expression on the fox's face at her answer. She dug into the basket and grabbed a red frosted cupcake and took a bite out of it, satisfied at the humoured expression on Tails face.

From watching Amy's attempts at trying to get Sonic all the time, it was blatantly obvious to Tails as to what Li Moon was trying to do here, but to his surprise, he found himself enjoying the experience. "How about we make some sandwiches and take this basket out for a picnic later?" he asked hopefully, internally laughing at the way she blushed and turned away from him suddenly.

"Yeah... sure thing Tails." she said with an overly happy tone present in her voice, inside she was doing back flips. "Come on let's go get some backflips..." Li Moon said happily, subconsciously taking Tails hand in hers and running up into the meeting building with him.

"Backflips?" Tails asked, confused.

"Backflips?" Li Moon said back, confused as he was.

"You mean 'breakfast' right?" Tails asked.

"What are you going on about Tails?" Li Moon said, looking at him strangely.

"Before you said 'come on let's go get some backflips,' you meant to say 'breakfast' instead of 'backflips' right?" Tails replied, Li Moon pondered this for a moment before realising he was right and she burst out into a loud fit of giggles.

"Shhhh... not so loud Li Moon, people are trying to sleep!" Tails smartly commented, forcing her into all out laughter, though it was obvious she was trying her best to contain it.

Half a minute later, Li Moon finally managed to get her laughter under control and the two entered the meeting place, the still slumbering forms of Sonic, Sally, Monkey Khan and Li Moon's grandfather Li Yuen lay resting on the floor, atop temporary beddings of course. Being foxes, both Tails and Li Moon stealthily navigated the hard wooden floors (Li Moon signalling the creaks in the floorboards along the way) and made it to the kitchen without waking anyone.

"What do you feel like?" Li Moon whispered to the other fox as she placed the basket on the kitchen bench for later.

"Something small..." Tails whispered back, "I've got a picnic scheduled later!" Li Moon giggled again, but quickly recovered and smacked Tails across the arm, a toothy grin appeared on his face. She took out two apple cinnamon bars from a nearby cupboard and handed him one, he ripped it open with his teeth and dug in instantly, Li Moon silently thanked whatever spiritual deity's lay above that he didn't care about formalities and did the same to her bar, savouring the taste of the heavily processed snack.

"When do you want to have this picnic?" Tails whispered between bites, staring directly into her violet eyes.

"Maybe ten, eleven" Li Moon replied quietly.

"What could we do until then?" Tails asked, mentally Li Moon was doing back flips again.

"_Does he want to spend the entire day with me?"_ she wondered, attempting to clear her mind of anything resembling 'back flips' she replied. "We could play a few board games, or maybe practice our skills in the Dojo." Li Moon replied cheerfully, she really hoped Tails would take up her offer in the Dojo as she really wanted the chance to spar with him. Looking into his eyes, that were the exact colour of the horizon now, she could see he was internally conflicted. Moments passed and Li Moon thought he was going to decline the Dojo offer.

"How hard do you hit?" Tails questioned her while he took another bite of the apple cinnamon bar, he knew she wouldn't have mentioned the Dojo if she didn't think she was up to it, he smiled when she jumped up with exited glee.

"Hey... can you guys shut it!" Sonic said while leaning against the doorframe. Both foxes blushed when they realised they had been using heavy voices for the past few minutes.

"Heh... sorry bout that Sonic." Tails apologised, rubbing the back of his neck nervously again which earned him a death glare from Sonic. "Sorry about that." Tails said quietly this time, before sprinting out of the meeting hall silently with Li Moon giggling behind him.

On his way out, Tails spotted Li Moon's Grandfather giving Li Moon an annoyed look, he knew Li Yuen was probably annoyed at her for the fact she was running through the hall nowhere as quietly as he was and was giggling uncontrollably, but couldn't help shake the feeling it was something else entirely.

Getting down into his bed again, Sonic turned to face Sally. "Yo, Sal, did we ever act like that?" Sonic questioned. Sally could see Kahn flinching slightly behind Sonic and she smiled at the hedgehog's stupidity before replying.

"No Sonic, I don't think we ever did."

"It's cliché I know, but he's growing up so fast..." Sonic said, rolling over to stare at the roof, Sally did the same. "Wadda bout you Li Yuan, what's your thoughts about this?" Sonic asked depressingly, Li Yuan sighed deeply before responding.

"I think I heard them say they were heading off to the Dojo and the entire village will most likely be awake soon!" Li Yuen responded. Half a minute later, Li Moon's screams of pain could be heard. Sonic, Sally and Li Yuan all cringed and walked into the kitchen to make themselves a cup of coffee, the perfect weather outside the window seemingly mocking them about the day the group of three was most likely going to have.

"Oh my god Li Moon, I'm so sorry!" Tails said, freaking out. Li Moon smiled deviously...

Taking a bite of a random muesli type bar he found in a box he didn't bother to read, Sonic smiled when he heard some more painful screams, this time belonging to Tails.

"We should probably stop them you know?" Sally stated while staring blankly at the kettle.

"If you go in there, at best Li Moon will just ignore you... at worst she hurl a two tailed fox your way!" Li Yuan replied truthfully, Li Moon wasn't someone to mess with.

"Last time I ticked-off Tails every appliance in my hut suddenly exploded whenever I touched it." Sonic added, taking another bite from the bar, "Picking up toaster and microwave parts for the next two weeks! I'm not even going to mention what happened to my fur." Sonic finished, to which Sally giggled, Sonic was the laughing stock of Knothole for months after the 'fur incident.' Another scream from Li Moon was heard.

"As you can see Li Moon, my tails are quite strong from being able to lift me off the ground!" Tails said, shaking his tails about. Li Moon smiled evilly, Tails was easily the most challenging opponent she'd ever faced and the fact he had two extra appendages to strike her with upped the challenge factor even more.

With a burst of speed, Li Moon charged towards Tails, who was only just able to defend himself in time thanks to years of training with Sonic.

Brining his left tail up just as Li Moon approached (or was it his right tail?), he hoped to parry her strike and hit her back with a counter strike, only for her to unexpectedly grab his tail, swing up and kick him in the chest, sending him across the wooden Dojo floor with a painful "Arggrgrgh."

"Ow!" Tails complained while rubbing his temple, Li Moon smirked at her handiwork and charged at him again.

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><p>Picking himself off of the ground from Li Moon's last roundhouse kick, Tails wrapped his tails around each of her arms as she charged him and began to swing her around at breakneck speeds, letting go mid spin she landed it the opposite wall comically.<p>

"There's a wall there Li Moon!" Tails commented, Li Moon took her boots off and threw them, directly hitting him in the face.

"Shoe!" Li Moon laughed, waving her hands in a 'get outa here' fashion.

Picking up her boots, Tails walked over to where Li Moon was sitting down against the wall and plopped them down in front of her and sat against the wall next to her. "Where did you learn to fight like that Li Moon?" Tails asked, truthfully he had been going all out on her.

"I've been training in the mixed martial arts here for all my life, I'm one of the strongest members to ever set foot inside of the Dojo apparently." Li Moon said truthfully, "I'm honestly quite surprised... you're the only honourable person I've fought that I couldn't beat." Li Moon complemented.

"Oh wow..." Tails said dumbly, before returning the complement "...don't sell yourself short though, I couldn't beat you either, and I've been training against Sonic for all my life."

"Oh, please... I mean no disrespect Tails please understand that when I say this... but Sonic fights with Speed, not honour." Li Moon said.

Wadda you mean Li Moon!" Tails said, truthfully he was slightly angered but he managed to keep his temper in check.

"His attack method is purely speed; he attacks his enemies with no real skill," Li Moon stated, adding onto it when she noticed his expression "it's not that he's not a good fighter, he's a global hero after all... I just don't think it's honourable when his enemies potentially train for years, but get beaten by his gift of speed..."

Tails mulled this over for a few seconds, he'd never thought of Sonic's attacks like that, he'd never been told this kind of opinion before, hate to admit it, but what she was saying was completely true, Sonic's fighting style was unfair to everyone else he fought.

"... Sonic helps out everyone when he stops Eggman's plans, but I'll never consider his fighting style honourable, you however, are different." Li Moon stated, Tails looked into her eyes and nodded his head, allowing her to continue. "You have the quickest reflexes I've come across, and fight with pure skill and talent, along with your natural born advantages with these..." Li Moon grabbed both of Tails tails and cuddled them tightly, making the kitsune blush. "Which allow you to balance, strike and fly perfectly."

"But isn't that the sorta the same with Sonic's speed?" Tails asked, defending his hero.

"Kinda, but no... This..." Li Moon now full on snuggled into the tail fur now sending Tails into a full on blush, "is a fair advantage... now let's get outa here and get ourselves cleaned up, you stink of sweat!"

Tails laughed at what she said, "You know foxes, well... every canine species, never used to have any sweat glands?" Tails said as he started to walk towards the Dojo exit with Li Moon.

"Really, what do you mean?" Li Moon asked, genuinely intrigued.

"Before we evolved, we lost excess body heat by panting our tongues, the air would hit the tongue and cool down the blood vessels inside it."

"Oh wow..."

"Somewhere along the lines though, we evolved sweat glands." Tails explained, pushing open the Dojo door, the village was well and truly awake now, both foxes had been fighting for two hours now and the town clock chimed eight times, as they walked out from the Dojo they both received angry stares from the various villages.

"What is that about?" Li Moon asked, Tails just looked blank and shook his shoulders.

"Who cares... where do we get cleaned up?" Tails asked, neither fox realised that they were holding hands as they made their way through the crowded town centre, it looked to be market day today and various wares were being sold, most of it being water that travelling traders had brought along in the hopes of selling them at unfair prices, their plan's were foiled however when the magic fire on the adjacent mountain had been put out. Once again cooling the air and allowing moisture.

Glancing at Li Moon, Tails noticed her gaze towards the various gift stands that had been set up, he knew what she was thinking and he was royally screwed if she got him a gift, he didn't have time to make her a gift (nor did he want to spend much time away from her today to do so) and any gift he would be able to purchase here would be a common sight in the small village, creativity was in order here. _"Something unusual, something she's never seen, something to remember me by!"_ Tails thought, desperately scanning the various stalls for anything he could use. "_Hair pins, Paper dolls, Sakura bears... Origami... Hmmmm, I wonder if...?"_

"_Oh, he really does care about me..."_ Li Moon thought, noticing Tails walk towards the gift stalls. _"Why does my hand suddenly feel empty?"_

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><p>"Sonic..." Tails said, his voice dry and desperate, "I need your help!" Tails begged, pulling on the back of Sonic's spines and making him flinch a little.<p>

"Ow, ow, what is it little buddy!" Sonic replied angrily, knowing full well he would be running somewhere far away to get some type of gift, fast. "Heh, the word fast is too slow for me!" Sonic thought. He caught a lot of dirty stares following the fox walking up to him, Sonic had to say sorry to a lot of villages today for their 6am wakeup call and had been standing outside of the meeting hall since then.

"I need you to get me something..." Tails said conspiringly, glancing around to make sure he wasn't heard by anyone, or in this case, anysomeone.

"Is it a chilli-dog?" Sonic replied, playing hard ball, "Cos I could really go for one of those as well! Mmmmm... Yum Yum!" Sonic finished, rubbing his stomach, Tails laughed before whispering something in Sonic's ear. "What! That's got to be the strangest gift for a girl I've ever heard, Tails!"

"Just trust me on this one Sonic, please, I need your help here." Tails said confidently, he knew this would work. Sonic gave him an odd glance and disappeared from sight, a full two minutes later he returned.

"You have no idea how hard it is to find one of these Tails!" Sonic exclaimed, handing Tails a small white box.

"It's perfect!"

"I hope you know what you're doing Tails... this is incredibly odd!" Sonic stated, Tails simply laughed and walked towards the Tornado to stash it for later.

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><p>"So Li Moon, where do we get cleaned up?" Tails asked as he walked with her through the crowded marketplace, the two were still stinky from training in the Dojo and were both carrying towels.<p>

"There's a community hot spring a few minutes' walk from here." Li Moon replied simply, Tails looked away as he thought of the potential implications this may bring, Li Moon noticed his sudden nervousness and laughed, "Don't worry bout it, I did say 'community spring pool' you know" Tails understood it was culture difference and tried to shrug it off, still he hoped Sally wasn't anywhere nearby; she'll no doubt skin him alive if she ever found out about this.

"Yeah sure..." Tails said, suddenly becoming very interested in the cobblestones below. Li Moon took his hand and started running with him towards the hot springs, just as the town clock struck nine.

"When are you leaving?" Li Moon asked sadly, suddenly realising Tails wouldn't be here tomorrow.

"Around one." Tails replied, equally as down as she was, both foxes looked away from each other, they were now walking through a green meadow, traces of snow lay in scatted deposits around the grass. Snow was a rare sight back in Mobotropolis, though Tails had seen his fair share of snow on his various journeys and wondered how cold it got up here.

"You getting in?" Li Moon questioned, she had hopped into the hot pool while Tails was distracted and he hadn't even noticed they had come up to it.

"Yeah... Sure..." Tails said nervously, he had spotted Li Moon's cloths and towel lying on the ground. Removing his socks, shoes and gloves, Tails hopped in somewhat relived when he spotted Li Moon wearing a green swim suit. Li Moon giggled at his blissful expression when he entered the spring and a comfortable silence soon came across the two as they relaxed. After a long period of time, Tails finally broke the silence in a quiet tone, not wishing to disrupt the mood.

"This... has... to be the best bath I've ever had..." Tails said, freaking out seconds later when his words caught up with him. "I don't mean it like that!" Tails said quickly, Li Moon started giggling again.

"Don't worry, I know what you mean Tails..." she commented with a blush. "I saw you wondering towards the gift stall's before... did you see anything you liked?" Li Moon asked hopefully, she hadn't seen him purchase anything and was hoping the situation would lead to gift giving.

"Well... I did order something..." Tails admitted, averting Li Moon's violet eyes.

"Well... what was it?" Li Moon asked, intrigued as to what it could be.

"It's for you... and it's a surprise..." Tails said, laughing at Li Moon's childish display as she thrashed her arms about in the water.

"Please... Please... Please... tell me, I hate surprises..." Li Moon said disdainfully.

"Why?" Tails simply asked.

"They're so surprising!" Li Moon said, Tails simply nodded his head and jumped out of the spring laughing, before drying himself off.

"Come find me in an hour, and we'll go have the picnic." Tails said as he put his gloves back on and started to fly off in the direction of Stormcloud village, shoes and socks in hand. Li Moon found herself cursing after the flying fox, she hated surprises.

"_At least I get to give him my gift..." _Li Moon thought to herself, watching as the wind blew several pink leaves into the spring from a nearby cheery blossom.

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><p>"Ready for the picnic Tails?" Li Moon asked the fox politely as she entered the meeting place's kitchen. Tails was facing away from her and a clicking sound could be heard as he gruffed an "am now." Several sandwiches lay prepared and wrapped on one of the benches. As Tails turned around, Li Moon saw he was holding a small white box with red spots decorating it and a small mechanical handle hung off one of its sides. "Is that my gift?" Li Moon asked, she had never seen anything like this before.<p>

"Yes... this is your 'surprise' Li Moon." Tails confirmed, smiling as Li Moon tried to figure out what the simple box was. Packing the sandwiches, a knife, 2 cups and the small white box into the weaved basket, Tails simply uttered "Later..." causing Li Moon to jump up and down in frustration. "Where's the best spot for a picnic?" Tails asked, Li Moon composed herself and replied.

"The best spot is the field we were standing in this morning..." Li Moon said simply, drinking a glass of water before walking out the meeting hall with Tails, the pair were again holding hands subconsciously and another comfortable silence fell upon the two as they walked towards the designated picnic spot.

From the deck of the meeting hall, Sonic, Sally, Li Yuen and Monkey Khan silently watched the pair walk past them oblivious to their presence.

"He's giving her a..." Monkey Kahn started.

"Yes, Kahn, he is..." Sonic interrupted, his fears were only heightened when Li Yuen sighed.

"But out of all the things he could have asked..." Sally wondered out loud, "...why did he want to give her a jack in the box!"

"I guess because it's unusual here..." Li Yuen stated truthfully, "...but knowing her she'll get bored of it pretty quick."

Just then, the clock struck ten.

"These cupcakes are really good Li Moon..." Tails complemented, taking a sip of the lemonade she made.

"Can I open it now?" Li Moon asked desperately, trying her best puppy eye look. Tails sighed in defeat and grabbed the box.

"I want to explain the gift first..." Tails said, "It's called a jack in the box, honestly it's a pretty standard toy where I come from." Tails explained, handing the box to her, "Now turn the crank on the side and keep a tight grip on the box itself..." Tails said, mentally bracing himself for Li Moon's reaction _"No turning back now!" _

Li Moon nodded her head and started to slowly turn the box's handle, the soothing and melodic tune of 'pop goes the weasel' reached both sets of ears and carried on the soft wind sifting through the fields grass.

"I wanted to put both our cultures into the box, so I made a little modification." Tails explained, his eyes were glued to the sparkling lakes and endless forests before him, no matter how much he wanted to look at Li Moon he was too nervous to bring himself to do it. the melody was quickly approaching the inevitable 'ping.'

With a final two rotations, the top of jack in the box popped open and Li Moon almost dropped the box in surprise. "My god..." She said, after punching Tails for giving her a surprise.

The box contained two origami foxes looking into each other's eyes and holding hands, one single tailed one and another two tailed one. Li Moon put the box down and pulled him into a passionate kiss.

"I love you Tails."

"I love you Li Moon."

The next thing both of them knew, the clock stuck one... both hearts screamed in pain.

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><p>Tails silently thanked the wind for giving him the excuse of watery eyes as he left Stormtop with Sonic and Sally holding onto the Tornado's wings, grabbing hold of the small golden locket given to him by Li Moon.<p>

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><p>The silent melody of 'pop goes the weasel' broke the silent night air of Stormtop village.<p>

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><p>Rate and Review... You!<p>

And please, please, please, authors... write some Tails/Li Moon story's, I'll like to read them.


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